Main Beach

Address: West end of Broadway, west of Coast Highway, Laguna Beach Description: Located at the mouth of Laguna Canyon, this popular, crescent-shaped sandy beach attracts swimmers, surfers and anglers. Numerous small sandy beaches and coves are found north of Main Beach from Circle Way to Jasmine Street, and south of the beach to Dumond Drive. Facilities: Boardwalk, benches and tables, restrooms, playground, basketball and volleyball courts. Parking: Street parking available.

The end is near. Or maybe it's not. One way or the other, it's time to party in Mexico . For the past year, Mexican marketing teams have been promoting Dec. 21 (that's Friday) as the end of the Maya calendar , hinting that doomsday may be right around the corner. But now that the date is speeding toward us, the message has changed. “Rather than the end of the world, the Maya people believe the end of the Maya calendar on Dec. 21, 2012, actually symbolizes the start of a new era and therefore is something to be celebrated,” said Dario Flota, general director of the Riviera Maya Destination Marketing Office.

The City Council on Tuesday will consider taking the first steps to repair Main Beach Park, which suffered the brunt of the damage inflicted by back-to-back storms this month. Municipal Services Director Terry Brandt recommends the council launch the rebuilding project by paying a team of consultants $22,700 to prepare plans to repair Main Beach, including the partially collapsed boardwalk.

Want to go to the No. 1 beach in America this Memorial Day weekend ? It's closer than you think. Coronado Beach in Coronado, Calif., snagged the top spot in Dr. Beach's Top 10 List 2012 . It's the first time any California beach has taken top honors since the list began in 1991. The beach doc who makes the annual pronouncements is really Stephen Leatherman, director of Florida International University's Laboratory for Coastal Research. "The beach is popular for swimmers, surfers, sunbathers and beachcombers," Leatherman writes about the San Diego-area spot.

Almost four months after flood waters ripped away part of a boardwalk, transforming eye-catching Main Beach into an eyesore, the city will launch a $400,000 project to renovate the oceanfront park. Work is scheduled to begin Monday, and city officials say Main Beach will be as good as new--maybe better--by July 4. Main Beach Park is perhaps the most visible section of the city, with its popular basketball courts at the edge of the sand.

Facing a court battle with the local Hare Krishna chapter, the Laguna Beach City Council has voted to allow the sect to set up booths at Main Beach once a year. In return, the Krishnas agreed to dismiss their lawsuit against the city.

A new law on the use of city parks will prevent members of the Hare Krishna religious sect from setting up photo exhibits and tents at their annual festival in Main beach Park this summer. The ordinance, adopted by the City Council last week, forbids the use of tables, booths or any other structures in the city's parks. "The park can be used by anybody for any legal purpose. They just can't set up any structures," City Manager Ken Frank said.

Main Beach will remain closed for at least a couple of days after an estimated 4,000 gallons of raw sewage on Tuesday spilled into a Laguna Canyon flood channel that empties into the ocean. The beach will remain off-limits pending results of water quality tests by the Orange County Health Department, Laguna Beach City Manager Kenneth C. Frank said. The spill occurred about 11 a.m. as city workers were repairing a main sewer line near the Irvine Bowl in Laguna Beach.

An American Indian with long black hair blessed the four corners of Main Beach with incense and an eagle feather on Saturday. A group of Hare Krishnas played drums and chanted a song. And the Supreme Master Ching Hai, a spiritual leader from Taiwan, distributed candy to children, gave discourses on life to anyone willing to listen and served vegetarian Vietnamese meals to a crowd of about 500 people. "It hasn't felt this relaxing here since the fire," said Holly Shulman, a three-year resident.

Free gifts aren't always eagerly received here, especially presents from artists who want to display their sculpture on the city's beloved Main Beach. Currently, Ron Taybi, an artist and longtime Laguna Beach resident, is offering to lend to the city for a year a 23-foot-high contemporary sculpture, a swirl of bright aluminum commemorating a woman who demonstrated for the emancipation of women in the Middle East. The gift isn't shoddy, although its market value is somewhat debatable.

Sorry, Florida! But this Memorial Day, your beach expert says that the best sand and surf can be found clear across the country -- in California. Tiny Coronado Beach, a 1.5-mile long sliver of sunshine in San Diego County, has been named the No. 1 beach in the United States  -- just as millions of Americans plan to head to the beach this Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial kickoff to summer. Part of Coronado's appeal is a highly unusual trait: The fine sand that lines the Coronado shore is laced with mica, a naturally occurring mineral.  "The sand glistens in the light when the sun hits it, and it's really something to see, especially when the sun goes down," professor Stephen P. Leatherman told the Los Angeles Times.

The doctor is in -- or weighing in with the best beaches in the United States for 2011. Siesta Key Beach in Sarasota, Fla., was the big winner. And, like last year, only one California beach made the list: Coronado Beach near San Diego , the No. 2 spot in the 2011 lineup. It moved up from No. 3 last year. Dr. Beach, a.k.a. Stephen Leatherman, director of the Laboratory for Coastal Research at Florida International University, says on his website that beaches are evaluated on 50 criteria, from sand softness and turbidity to how much debris is floating in the water.

Eighteen single-edged razor blades were found partly buried in the sand at a playground in Laguna Beach on Sunday, just hours after police received a tip that a group of youths were headed to that area to "hurt people." An unidentified young woman who called police about 4 a.m. Sunday said some of her friends--eight males and possibly a female--told her they were going to Main Beach.

The seaside enclave of Laguna Beach has long been a catch basin for inland urban runoff and flood waters, which in years past have washed through its narrow village streets and swamped its business district and beaches.

Newport Beach is one of the 10 best urban beaches in the United States, according to a report by the Surfrider Foundation released Thursday, despite the region's well-known water quality woes. The city was one of three California communities to make the list--along with East Beach in Santa Barbara and Main Beach in Santa Cruz--as spots where there is a "peaceful coexistence" between healthy shorelines and urban development, according to the advocacy group's State of the Beach report.

California has three of the best urban beaches in the United States, according to a new report by the Surfrider Foundation, despite water quality woes. Newport Beach in Orange County, East Beach in Santa Barbara and Main Beach in Santa Cruz rank among the country's top 10 urban beaches--spots where there is a "peaceful coexistence" between healthy shorelines and urban development, according to the advocacy group's first State of the Beach Report.

The City Council early Wednesday rejected an artist's offer to place his 23-foot-tall, abstract sculpture on Main Beach but decided to look for another place in the city to display it. The Arts Commission had recommended that the city accept a year's free loan of the artwork, which local sculptor Ron Taybi offered for the 1,000-foot-long strand of landscaped boardwalk and sand at the foot of the downtown business section.

Ordinarily, Ron Paradis answers the phone at Johnny Rocket's, his downtown hamburger joint, by saying, "It's a great day at the beach!" But lately, he says it differently, as though the caller had said, "Hold the sincerity." These days, Paradis' anger has gone from rare to well-done. "We're lucky no one's been killed" in Laguna, he said with a snarl Wednesday. "We're aggravated, frustrated, depressed. . . . We expect another storm, and there's not a damn thing we can do about it.

The city's Ocean Water Quality Advisory Board is urging immediate action on urban runoff problems. "We need emergency provisions to get Laguna Beach's house in order," said board member Michael Beanan. "There's been a lot of talk and no action." The board recently voted to draft two water quality proposals for City Council review. The council will study the requests at its Feb. 15 meeting.